Daily Archives: December 20, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

Year-end reviews speak of duties, trade and sustainability

December 20, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

The Conference Board of Canada, in a year-end report on the country’s wood products industry, says revenues are on pace to grow 8% despite US softwood duties paid of $500 million. And although strong prices will offset the expected $1.3 billion in duties in 2018, increases in US production and offshore imports will keep a lid on future price growth.

In other Business news: TimberWest published their sustainability progress report; Rick Jeffrey recaps BC’s largest-ever trade mission to Asia; Tolko signed an economic agreement with the Splatsin First Nation; Mackenzie Pulp is fined by WorkSafeBC; and a lack of timber is squeezing the housing boom in Australia.

In Forestry news: environmental groups criticized Alberta’s release of a plan to save the caribou; BC’s ban of grizzly bear hunting is called the “thin edge of the wedge“; and Oregon’s national monument is next in line for reductions.

Finally, a Billings forester has a secret weapon to stop tree vandalism – fox urine, and Rome’s official Christmas tree is a Charlie Brown special.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Rome’s Official Christmas Tree Is So Ugly Only Charlie Brown Could Love it

The Associated press in Time.com
December 21, 2017
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

Rome’s official Christmas tree is shedding needles so quickly it has become a jolly joke for city residents. The 21-meter- (70-foot-) high tree, which was lit up on Dec. 8, started dropping needles at a fast clip as soon as it was hoisted into the middle of bustling Rome’s main square, Piazza Venezia. Romans have dubbed the tree “The Mangy One.” They’re also needling Rome’s mayor about the forlorn-looking specimen, which cost 48,000 euros ($57,000) to transport from South Tyrol, an Italian Alpine region. The city said Tuesday it is investigating why the tree is ailing.

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Business & Politics

Canadian softwood producers face steep U.S. duties in 2018: report

By Brent Jang
The Canadian Press in The Globe and Mail
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Canadian softwood producers face paying roughly $1.3-billion in U.S. duties in 2018 should the cross-border trade fight persist through the year, but strong lumber prices will take away some of the sting, the Conference Board of Canada says. …He issued a 15-page softwood report on Tuesday, cautioning that while high lumber prices recently hit levels near the records set in 2004, the commodity’s rally could lose steam by 2019. …RBC Dominion Securities Inc. analyst Paul Quinn said new residential construction numbers for November show jumps in American housing starts and permits, especially in the key U.S. South market. “Housing starts in the U.S. South look to have regained some strength after the recent hurricanes,” he said in a research note.

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Higher Prices Help Offset Impacts of Softwood Lumber Duties

Conference Board of Canada
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

OTTAWA – Canada’s lumber industry has been able to survive the impacts of preliminary duties, largely thanks to soaring lumber prices. While industry production will remain virtually flat this year, industry revenues are on pace to grow by 8 per cent, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s Canadian Industrial Outlook: Wood Products Manufacturing – Autumn 2017. “Lumber prices are at their highest levels in over a decade due to a perfect storm of factors, including supply constraints in B.C. from the wildfires this summer, and increased demand from a recovering U.S. housing market and rebuilding efforts in hurricane-affected regions,” said Michael Burt, Director, Industrial Trends, The Conference Board of Canada. “The surging lumber prices are providing a welcome relief from the costs of the lumber duties imposed by the U.S., but this is not likely to last.” 

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Dynamic Global Trade & Emerging Volatility – Conference registration is open!

FEA Canada (WOOD MARKETS)
December 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Registration is now open for the 8th annual Global Softwood Log & Lumber Conference that will be held on Wednesday May 9 and Thursday May 10, 2018. the two-day international log, lumber, industry and markets conference will feature a cross section of North American and international speakers. The initial line up of confirmed speakers is available on our conference program. These speakers will provide in-depth coverage of key global markets for softwood logs, lumber and the supply dynamics in major exporting and importing countries. Delegates will be able to make direct contact with regional and inter- national players to obtain a more robust consensus that incorporates the many moving parts of today’s complex world of wood. Visit our website for updates including additional speakers, registration, prices, hotel reservations and more starting during the week of December, 18 2017

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BC’s Largest-Ever Forestry Trade Mission to Asia a Success

Coast Forest Products Association
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

This fall, Coast Forest joined Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister Doug Donaldson on BC’s largest-ever forestry trade mission to Asia. Along with 30+ delegates from across British Columbia’s forest industry, Coast Forest met with key government and industry players in China and Japan, working to expand markets, enhance relationships, and raise the value of BC wood products. …As a key industry in our province, the need for strong relationships and robust understanding between Canadian and overseas markets is clear. A sustainable forest industry is indispensable to Canadian and Asian markets, both from an environmental and economic standpoint. …As BC looks towards the future, further trade missions will be necessary to ensure strong overseas markets and a thriving forest industry for all British Columbians.

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Reflections on a Year Past – And a New Voice for a New Year

Rick Jeffery
Coast Forest Products Association
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Rick Jeffery

2017 was a year when British Columbia’s coastal forest industry was re-affirmed, once again, as an important cornerstone sector to growing BC’s strong and sustainable economy.  A new economic study by PwC found that $12.9 billion of our province’s GDP comes from forestry with government receiving $4 billion in tax revenue every year from the sector.  It also found that 140,000 British Columbians rely on forestry for their jobs with the stability of 140 BC communities dependent on a healthy industry. …As the highs and lows of 2017 continue into the new year, they will be addressed with a new voice for the coast.   BC coastal forestry, as represented by Coast Forest will be united with the BC Council of Forest Industries.  Together we will continue to look to the future as we always have – with resilience, persistence and optimism.

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TimberWest: 2017 a Year in Review

TimberWest
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

We published our Sustainability Progress Report this year with clear goals for 2017, and we can proudly say we have accomplished nearly all of them; from signing two important long-term Access Agreements with membership-based outdoor recreation groups, to achieving bronze certification to the Progressive Aboriginal Relations standard – we are extremely proud of our accomplishments. We wanted to take this opportunity to highlight 2017, and what our team, our partners and our communities were able to accomplish. Safety is our first priority. Our safety program encompasses technology innovation and implementation, and safety leadership. Our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that everyone arrives home safe. …Our Environmental Leadership is demonstrated through our partnerships in conservation, and our focus to adopt best practices in land management and sustainable forestry.

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Kalesnikoff employees ring in festive season with $13,000 plus donation to local charities

The Nelson Daily
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Brad Mason, Kailee Woodbeck and Krystle Seed

Staff at Kalesnikoff Lumber make Christmas extra special for families in Nelson and Castlegar. The Shoreacres-based company is making 40 families Christmas happier this year, with food for a traditional dinner, a hamper of groceries to take them through the next week,and gifts for the kids right off their wish-list. “Last year, we made a commitment to help 28 families in Nelson through the Salvation Army,” explained Kalesnikoff CFO Krystle Seed. “The experience was so overwhelming that this year we doubled the commitment, and along with the Nelson families, we’re now doing the same in Castlegar too.” 

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Tolko/Splatsin sign economic agreement

By Barry Gerding
Vernon Morning Star
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Wayne Christian and Brad Thorlakson

The mutual economic cooperation between Tolko and Splatsin, the southern-most community of the 17 that make up the Secwepemc Nation, has taken an advanced step forward. A Letter of Intent (LOI) was signed in November between the two, a commitment to seek out business, employment and joint venture opportunities that can lead to long-term sustainable jobs. “Working with the Splatsin has been a very positive experience,” said Brad Thorlakson, president and CEO of Tolko Industries. “Over the past eight years, through open dialogue, we have worked together on land management issues, forest administration areas, and procurement opportunities. …“The LOI with Tolko and Splatsin moves us towards a model of joint planning and management of a portion of our territory,” added Kukpi7 Chief Wayne Christian.

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Mackenzie Pulp fined almost $200,000

The Prince George Citizen
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

WorkSafeBC has slapped Mackenzie Pulp Mill Corporation with a near $200,000 fine for safety violations in the firm’s pulp mill and fibre-handling buildings. An inspection uncovered accumulations of combustible wood dust close to ignition sources and determined cleanups were not being properly supervised or carried out as scheduled, WorkSafeBC said in an online posting. Also, several pieces of equipment were found without suitable guards to prevent rotating, nip point, and entanglement hazards. Safeguarding audits were not completed. Both problems were deemed high-risk violations and the trouble with the wood dust was a repeat offence. 

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EACOM Timber Corporation makes investments despite softwood lumber dispute

By Maija Hoggett
Timmins Today
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Amid the latest softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the United States, EACOM Timber Corporation has invested in its Timmins sawmill and diversified its offerings. …With operations in Quebec and Ontario, EACOM public affairs director Christine Leduc explained most of their wood is from Crown land. “That’s what’s at the heart of the dispute, right, the claim that we’re subsidized even though Canada has been successful in challenging these actions previously. Here we are again in 2017 being imposed a duty that considers programs that we’ve previously defended,” she said. …About 50 per cent of EACOM’s volume is shipped to the United States, while the other half stays in Canada. …With six facilities in Ontario, she said EACOM is “committed to making it out on the other end the softwood lumber dispute.”

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Greenpeace calls for investigation into Sinarmas dealings

Associated Press in Washington Post
December 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The environmental group Greenpeace has called for an investigation into the relationship between paper giant Sinarmas and its wood suppliers after The Associated Press found substantial ties between them despite the Indonesian conglomerate’s assertions the suppliers are independent. Among the suppliers described as independent are plantation companies accused of responsibility for devastating fires in Indonesia in 2015 that the World Bank estimated caused losses of $16 billion and which a Harvard and Columbia study said hastened 100,000 deaths. AP’s investigation also found that a plantation company owned by two Sinarmas Forestry employees has been cutting down tropical forest in Borneo since 2014 and that Sinarmas is recruiting a new wood supplier that is in conflict with dozens of villages.

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China’s total forestry output expected to exceed 7 trillion RMB this year

By Li Yan
Ecns.cn
December 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Zhang Jianlong

China’s total forestry output is expected to exceed 7 trillion RMB ($1.06 trillion) in 2017, according to Chinese newspaper Economic Daily. China has become the fastest-growing and most influential country in forest products manufacturing, trading, and consumption, said Zhang Jianlong, director of the State Forestry Administration. “China has a forest area of 208 million hectares with 15.137 billion cubic meters of forest stock, covering 21.66% of the country,” Zhang noted. China tops the world in the production of furniture, timber floors, wooden plates, bamboo wood, rosin, and affordable forest products, he added. …In the next few years, Zhang said, China will optimize traditional businesses such as forestry cultivation, wood manufacturing, paper making, forestry herbicides, and forestry equipment. According to him, the country’s total output of forestry industry will hit 8.7 trillion RMB in 2020.

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Pulp giant’s makeover obscures supplier ties

By Stephen Wright 
Associated Press in Washington Post
December 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Despite its denials, one of the world’s biggest paper producers has extensive behind-the-scenes ties and significant influence over wood suppliers linked to fires and deforestation that have degraded Indonesia’s stunning natural environment, The Associated Press has found. Indonesia’s Sinarmas — better known by its international trade name, Asia Pulp & Paper — has insisted in company publications, public events and to the media that most of the companies that supply it with wood are “independent,” not owned by it or in other ways affiliated with it. But the AP has found links between Sinarmas, its pulp and paper arm and nearly all the 27 plantation companies that it has told the outside world are independent. The company’s apparent aim: to “greenwash” its image for the global market.

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Govt on right track but must not move too fast

By the Editorial Board
Otago Daily Times
December 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The forestry industry is cautiously optimistic about the Government’s proposals for the sector, writes consultant Jim Childerstone, of Hampden. It appears the newly-elected coalition Government has taken a more hands-on approach to boost the industry. But it needs to take one step at a time. Early policy suggestions did cause some angst, principally among forest owners. Forestry is long-term. Very long-term. In fact, 25 to 30 years. Nothing can be rushed. Consultation with leading industry players and the Labour-led NZ First and Greens Government is vital. And this could be coming to fruition. Forest owners, processors and contractors canvassed by this forestry writer and consultant in Otago and Southland for the ODT have given positive responses, even some considered to be to the right of the political spectrum.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

WoodWorks Announces 2018 Partners

By WoodWorks
Business Wire
December 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

WASHINGTON–WoodWorks-Wood Products Council has announced its lineup of 2018 funding partners, whose participation in the program enables WoodWorks to achieve its mission of supporting architects, engineers and others involved in the design of wood buildings. Major funding partners include the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB), USDA Forest Service, and Forestry Innovation Investment. …The Softwood Lumber Board is a check-off program supported by manufacturers of softwood lumber across the U.S., and the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Lab undertakes research that WoodWorks helps make accessible to building designers. National Partners are individual companies that also help fund the efforts of the WoodWorks program. …WoodWorks also receives support from APA – The Engineered Association, and works closely with its partners reThink Wood, the American Wood Council and Canadian Wood Council.

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The country’s tallest timber building wraps up in Portland

By Jonathan Hilburg
The Architect’s Newspaper
December 19, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

As the race heats up to demonstrate that timber is a viable alternative to concrete for mid and high-rise buildings, Portland, Oregon, has been leading the way in realizing mass timber projects. The latest to claim the country’s tallest timber building crown is Carbon12, an 85-foot tall mixed-use building in Portland, designed by PATH Architecture. Built with a mix of glulam beams and cross-laminated timber (CLT) surrounding a central steel core, the eight-story building was designed to have a minimal environmental impact and promote Oregon’s local timber industry. As downtown Portland addresses a growing demand for housing, timber projects constructed with prefabricated CLT panels cut off-site, like Carbon12, hold a speed advantage over traditional steel and concrete techniques.

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Timber squeeze jams housing industry

By Nick Lenaghan
The Australian Financial Review
December 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Mark Little

The housing boom is being hit by a serious shortage of timber caused by the decline of the local timber industry and increased demand as the US economy recovers and house building ramps up. Home builders in Australia are facing both rising costs and lengthy delays as the shortage starts to affect residential building. In Victoria, where the squeeze is the tightest, the shortage means builders are telling their clients that their new homes may take several months longer to complete as they wait to get hold of increasingly scarce timber frames and roof trusses. Mill closures and bushfires are part of the problem but the nation’s pine plantations have been shrinking steadily since the global financial crisis and the collapse of managed investment schemes.

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Forestry

Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. achieves globally-recognized certification

Burns Lake Community Forest
December 15, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. (BLCF) has been granted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification with Ecotrust Canada, a national non-profit organization. The FSC Forest Management Certification has the most rigorous forest management standards in the world. It is a voluntary market-based system available to forestry organizations who want to demonstrate responsible forest management by having their planning and practices independently reviewed by third-party auditors. The certification helps protect the people, plant, and animal species that live around, and depend on, the forest. BLCF holds strong principles of developing strong working relations with First Nations partners supported by the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and operates with rigorous environmental standards while examining economic opportunities. These ambitious standards helped the BLCF achieve the certification.

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2018 COFI Forestry Scholarship

Council of Forest Industries
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In 2007 The Council of Forest Industries established our Forestry Scholarship with the goal to encourage young people in the interior of BC to choose a professional, technical or trades career in the forest sector. COFI provides ten $1,500 entrance scholarships to students enrolling at a post-secondary institution in the interior in a program leading to a career in the forest industry. The scholarships are funded through proceeds from COFI’s annual convention.  Applicants must be planning to attend one of the ten interior post- secondary institutions in the fall of 2018 or 2nd semester 2019. Preference will be given to students entering a forestry-related program (see reverse for list acceptable elds of study).

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Lakeside Pacific Forest Products gets good audit

BC Forest Practices Board
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – An audit of Lakeside Pacific Forest Products Limited on Forest Licence A19207 has found Lakeside met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act, according to a Forest Practices Board report released today, Dec. 19, 2017. Lakeside’s operations are on the east and west sides of Harrison Lake, near Chilliwack. “Lakeside operates in an area with significant recreation values and high public use. With that comes high public expectations and they must conduct their operations with care,” said board chair Tim Ryan. “The board is pleased to see that Lakeside is meeting all of its legal obligations for planning, harvesting, road construction and maintenance, reforestation and fire protection.”

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BC Liberal MLA slams grizzly hunt ban as ‘thin edge of the wedge’

By Simon Little
CKNW News
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A BC Liberal MLA is slamming the NDP government over its plans to ban grizzly bear hunting in the province. …On Monday, the New Democrats announced that all grizzly hunting, save for traditional First Nations hunts, would be stopped immediately. …Speaking on CKNW’s The Simi Sara Show, Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar called the decision a cynical political calculation. “[It’s] nothing more than an appeasement due to the Site C decision,” he said. …“If that’s how we’re going to start making wildlife conservation policy in this province, I don’t think we need a minister of environment anymore, we need an online polling company.”

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Province answers islanders’ call for a Haida Gwaii Community Forest

By Andrew Hudson
Haida Gwaii Observer
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Haida Gwaii’s long-awaited community forest just grew a big step closer.  On Saturday, 20 days after an all-islands push for it, B.C.’s forestry ministry issued a new map for a potential community forest and a formal invitation to apply for one. “In 21 years of pursuing this on Haida Gwaii, this is the first tangible invitation to apply,” said Janine North, executive director of the Misty Isles Economic Development Society (MIEDS), speaking to Queen Charlotte council on Monday night. “We’ll see where it goes from here.” On paper, the proposed community forest includes five areas that should support a total cut of 80,000 m3 a year. But the only allowable cut listed in the ministry’s offer to apply is less than that: 55,000 m3.

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BC Timber Sales receives vote of non-confidence

By Andrew Hudson
Haida Gwaii Observer
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

About 70 people marched to Haida Gwaii’s provincial forestry office on Saturday, days after the Council of the Haida Nation issued no-logging orders in a dispute with BC Timber Sales. On the sidelines are two Port Clements logging companies who rely on BCTS for work. But the future of BCTS on Haida Gwaii is itself an open question. Early last week, the Council of the Haida Nation wrote the two companies — O’Brien & Fuerst Logging and Infinity West — telling them not to log timber sales that BCTS recently sold them near Lawn Hill and Nadu Road. In May and July, the CHN rejected plans for those sales, making them among the first from BCTS to go “non-consensus” at the Solutions Table. The main problem, said the CHN, is that both are easy-access, high-value cedar stands that were expected to be part of a future Haida Gwaii Community Forest.

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Environmentalists criticize Alberta plan to help endangered woodland caribou

By Colette Derworiz
Canadian Press in the National Post
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

EDMONTON — Alberta’s draft plan to help threatened woodland caribou recover in 15 different ranges prompted immediate criticism from environmental groups. The plan is in response to a federal deadline under the Species at Risk Act that passed in October. …“Today’s release of incomplete range plans for woodland caribou is Alberta’s second missed deadline to meet a legal requirement to protect caribou habitat,” said Simon Dyer, regional director for Alberta at the Pembina Institute. He said the province has had five years to finalize specific plans, yet the document doesn’t demonstrate how caribou habitat will be protected. “Given Alberta’s deficient plan, we call on the federal government to step in and recommend protection of critical habitat for caribou in Alberta,” said Dyer.

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‘Sitting on our hands is not an option’: Alberta releases another draft plan to save threatened caribou

By Zoe Todd
CBC News
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Shannon Phillips

Alberta on Tuesday released another draft of its overdue and federally mandated plan to protect threatened woodland caribou in the province. The 212-page document includes a timeline for public engagement, as well as proposed strategies to restore herds and habitat. The provincial government has committed to spending more than $85 million over five years to protect the species. There are 15 caribou herds in Alberta. All but four of the herds are dwindling in numbers, according to research from the province. …”We will go back and forth several times with the federal government,” Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips told CBC News Tuesday. “It is up to them, at the end of the day, to determine adequacy because the whole reason we have to file these plans is to fulfil obligations around the Species at Risk Act.”

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What really bright lights reveal about fungus attacking Nova Scotia trees

By Anjuli Patil
CBC News
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Trees in the Halifax area infected with nectria canker appear to be trying to fight off the fungus. That’s the finding of a team of Halifax Grammar School students who travelled last week to Canadian Light Source, a national research facility in Saskatoon, to investigate the problem. …Nectria canker infestations are a concern in Nova Scotia because they can destroy 50 to 85 per cent of trees within 10 years. Talha said the fungus is spread through holes made by insects in hardwood trees. “We chose nectria canker because it is a local fungus that is attacking our trees in Halifax and throughout Nova Scotia. 

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Oregon national monument the next one examined for reductions

By Bryce Oates
The Daily Yonder
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After recommending pulling public land out of two National Monuments in Utah, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke has his eyes on another monument reduction – this one in Southwest Oregon. Zinke is recommending a reduction of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, currently comprised of 113,000 acres. Much of the area to be removed from the National Monument is in the 40,000 acre former Oregon and California Railroad Land (called the “O&C Lands”). Much of this land was added when President Obama enlarged its size just before leaving office. Timber harvest is cited as one reason for removing the land from the additional protections provided by National Monument status. “Local concerns were ignored. Worse yet, the law was ignored. Commercial timber harvesting is specifically forbidden,” within the monument, stated Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman.

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City forester may use secret weapon — fox urine — to stop tree vandalism at Billings parks

By Mike Ferguson
Billings Gazette
December 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

If people keep stealing and damaging trees in Billings parks, Steve McConnell may be forced to reach for a bottle of fox urine. McConnell, the city forester, is working with Nick Lam on the case of a 5-foot memorial spruce tree stolen from Lillis Park on the West End earlier this month — a tree probably now being used as the thief’s Christmas tree. …As a deterrent, some city foresters spray their smaller public trees with fox urine, McConnell said — an innocuous enough odor outdoors in cooler temperatures, but “it stinks to high heaven when brought indoors to a warm house,” he said.

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Partnership protects elk wildlife areas

Williamson Daily News
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

CHARLESTON – About 32,000 acres of West Virginia forest land in Logan, Lincoln and Mingo counties will now be protected as wildlife habitat for the state’s new elk population and recreational uses thanks to a partnership between the state and a large environmental preservation non-profit. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources working with The Conservation Fund, recently completed the protection of the sustainable working forestland that provides ideal elk habitat with more than $12 million from the Wildlife Restoration Program. …”These working forest lands have been enrolled in the DNR’s wildlife management area system, where they will be managed to generate high quality wildlife habitat and provide tremendous hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities.”

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Indiana Department of Natural Resources not logging for health of forest

By Jeff Stand, Indiana Forest Alliance
Brown County Democrat
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Jeff Stand

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ plan to log the Yellowwood backcountry area is being driven by an ideological obsession to manage trees in our state forests as a crop, rather than concern about the health of the forest as asserted by DNR Director Cameron Clark. Rather than logging virtually all of the state forests, the law that Mr. Clark cites requires the DNR to manage the state forests for all Hoosiers’ benefit. Mr. Clark is mischaracterizing the history of this forest and the DNR’s role in its return. It was not “an ecosystem that barely existed until the foresters planted it.” 

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Logging underway in Yellowwood Backcountry

By Sarah Bowman and Emily Hopkins
Indianapolis Star
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Despite persistent public outcry — and the hope that Gov. Eric Holcomb might intervene — the controversial plan to log trees in the Yellowwood Forest Backcountry Area has moved forward.  Dave Seastrom, a Brown County resident who has been working with the Indiana Forest Alliance to protest the logging, said that he and an associate hiked out to the area on Tuesday and could see that operations were underway. “We went to check it out,” Seastrom said, “and almost immediately saw a truck full of logs.” He said they also saw heavy machinery. “It’s pretty hard to accept,” he said, “that after all the contact we’ve made with the governor that his choice in the matter is to remain silent.” Tara Wolf, a spokeswoman with the Department of Natural Resources, confirmed logging is now underway. “The contractors have began work,” she said, “pursuant to the sale held on November 9, 2017.”

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Timbering frustration won’t ‘soon turn into apathy’

Letter by Curt Mayfield, Indiana Forest Alliance
Brown County Democrat
December 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Curt Mayfield

It should be obvious by now to residents of Brown County and even visitors that the mission of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources is to provide low-cost timber to the hardwood lumber industry. Why else would the DNR director feel compelled to write a guest column in The Democrat stating that our forests were being “carefully managed”? In the article, which appeared in a number of newspapers throughout the state, the director stated that forest management practices were based on science. If that were the case, why would he ignore the scientists, 228 of them, who urged the governor to set aside the backcountry area to protect habitat for endangered plants and animals?

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Crown Forestry to get planting

By Shane Jones
Scoop Independent News
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forestry Minister Shane Jones has today welcomed a renewed mandate for Crown Forestry to enable it to kick-start the Government’s tree planting programme. Cabinet has given the green light to allow Crown Forestry to enter into new commercial arrangements to plant trees on privately-owned land and to provide $14 million of funding to support the planting of trees next year and the purchase of seedlings for 2019. “The ambitious one billion trees planting programme is one of the Government’s cornerstone policies,” Mr Jones says. “It will help encourage regional economic growth, create sustainable, high-quality jobs, provide opportunities for Māori to develop their land, help meet our climate change targets and support more sustainable use of land, water and other natural resources.

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Action needed now to save tropical forest area the size of India

By Johah Busch
Phys.org
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

An area of forest the size of India will be lost by 2050 unless carbon pricing and anti-deforestation policies are put in place. That is the primary finding of a new study carried out by researchers from the Center for Global Development, Washington, DC, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They analysed detailed satellite-based maps of annual forest loss between 2001-2012… to project future emissions from deforestation in a business-as-usual scenario. They then estimated the emissions that would be avoided if governments that oversee tropical forests enacted domestic carbon pricing policies or strong anti-deforestation measures. Lead author Dr. Jonah Busch, from CGD, said: “Our results showed that Earth stands to lose 289 million hectares of tropical forest between 2016 and 2050 if no action is taken. The loss of this amount of forest would release 169 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.

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Recent graduates doing well in forestry sector

By the New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Scoop Independent News
December 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Recent tertiary graduates are earning good incomes from their employment in the forest industry, according to a recent survey by the New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF). A survey of 600 NZIF members indicates recent graduates in the forestry sector are attaining a median gross salary of $58,520, which increases to $62,725 for a total remuneration package. NZIF spokesperson Tim Thorpe says many of the graduates would have a degree from the University of Canterbury Schools of Forestry and Engineering. But he says others would be included in the recent graduate category as holders of New Zealand diplomas in forest management or similar, from Toi Ohomai in Rotorua, NorthTec in Whangarei or EIT in Gisborne. 

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